Sleeping Boy Dies In Barrage Of Bullets

Aurora Violence Claims 6-year-old

He and his 8-year-old cousin would have a slumber party at their grandparents' house in Aurora, then wake up early Sunday for church and a special buffet lunch out.

Sunday was even more special, because Nicholas, known as Nico, was to celebrate his sixth birthday party at an Aurora skating rink that afternoon.

But just after 4 a.m. Sunday, as Nicholas lay sleeping in a back bedroom next to his cousin, a volley of gunfire crashed into the family's home.

The boy was hit several times in the back and died instantly, said Aurora Police Lt. Michael Gilloffo.

Nicholas' death was the 25th homicide in Aurora this year--15 of them gang-related, according to police--and it came two days after the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Joshua Dean a short distance away.

Police said that they had made no arrests in either shooting late Sunday.

"It's so hard to believe he's gone," said the boy's uncle Michael Saltijeral. "I keep expecting him to come walking into the house. I keep remembering his smile. It's never going to be the same without him."

Though the motive was under investigation, police said Sunday the shooter appeared to have jumped a broken fence in the back yard of the home and fired the fatal shots through a window.

"Maybe they made a mistake with the house," said the boy's aunt Esther Saltijeral, as she peered out the same window Sunday morning.

Nicholas' cousin escaped injury, as did another uncle, 17-year-old Hugo Saltijeral, who was asleep on a mattress on the floor.

The Contreras' wood-frame home sits aside a hill on a two-block stretch of residential property, next to the railroad tracks and an industrial district.

"That block is pretty isolated," Gilloffo said. "It is a street that stands out by itself."

Most of the violence that has plagued Aurora has taken place about a half-mile to the south, on the near east side of the city.

"We've never denied that Aurora has a gang problem," said Gilloffo, "but it is no worse than any other industrial city our size. We recognize that there is a problem, and we are dealing with that."

Police reorganized their gang unit two years ago and recently started a program of night street sweeps.

Officers also have focused more attention on prevention and education in junior high and high schools, Gilloffo said.

Yet even by urban standards, the gang problem in Aurora is significant. Of the 824 slayings in Chicago last year, about 30 percent were gang-related, according to police. The percentage was twice that in Aurora.

The Contreras family said they have been pressuring police for years to get more serious about the violence in their city. Five years ago, Nico's grandmother Mary Saltijeral went to city officials and demanded action. She said she got no response.

The boy's grandfather Mike Saltijeral said he pleads with police officials to address the problem each time he saw Nico on the street.

"We hear about shootings every day," said Mike Saltijeral, an Aurora resident for 15 years. "You never think it's going to hit home, though."

That is why Nico's grandparents did not think much of the loud sounds that woke them early Sunday.

Their first instinct was to see whether someone was banging on the front door in the middle of the night, said Mary Saltijeral.

When they saw no one, they went to check the back of the house. That is when Nico's grandmother found the child lying in his bed, shot.

"He believed he could be anything," said Nico's uncle Michael. "He had such a good self-esteem."

Nico had talked about wanting to be the president of the United States.

On Friday, the kindergarten pupil, who started at Our Lady of Good Council School in Aurora this year, made a stack of crayon portraits of all the members of his family.

"He had such an imagination," said an aunt, Esther. "He was a character."

Those who loved Nico tried to find answers Sunday for the scores of questions that still remain.

More than 200 people--teachers, friends, and relatives--gathered at the Saltijerals' home late in the afternoon for a prayer service in the family's back yard.

"Everyone is hurting and crying right now," Nico's uncle Michael said after the ceremony. "We all have so much anger and sorrow and pain, thinking that he is gone and nothing will ever bring him back."

The Saltijeral family is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to a conviction in connection with the shooting.

Police ask anyone with information to call 630-859-1700 or the Aurora Area Crime Stoppers at 630-892-1000.